Stem-cell ban ends, scientists go to work

Patients and scientists were excited yet cautious Monday after President Barack Obama lifted restrictions on federal funding for research using embryonic stem cells.

Some said the reversal of the Bush-era policy will infuse new life into the search for potential treatments of Alzheimer's disease, paralysis, heart failure and other devastating conditions.

Others, including the president himself, warned that no one should expect imminent breakthroughs.

"Medical miracles do not happen simply by accident," Obama said before signing an executive order that lifts the funding ban. "They result from painstaking and costly research from years of lonely trial and error, much of which never bears fruit."

Faye Armitage believes embryonic stem cells could someday help her son and thousands like him.

She was living in Kissimmee in 1996 when her 7-year-old son collided with another soccer player and developed a clot in his brain that led to paralysis from the neck down. Now 19, Jason Armitage depends on a wheelchair and his family for every task of daily living. Only his right arm has limited movement.

"The damage on Jason's [brain] is probably the size of a pencil eraser," said Armitage, who has testified before Congress in support of stem-cell therapy. "I just don't believe that we won't be able to fix such a small amount of damage in the body to someday prevent paralysis, and then, hopefully, to find ways to fix it."

With Obama's signature, researchers can seek federal grants to work with a greater variety of embryonic stem cells. Under the previous administration, government funding had been limited to embryonic cell lines that were in existence when Bush's ban went into effect in August 2001.

Embryonic stem-cell research is controversial because human embryos, typically donated by fertility labs, must be destroyed to collect the cells.

Some scientists said the older cells were not sufficient and that the ban stalled progress with new, more robust cell lines created in recent years from private funding.

"There are many technical difficulties with the early cell lines," said Dinender K. Singla, an associate professor at the University of Central Florida who does stem-cell research. "Today's [policy change] encourages me to think that we can take our knowledge into new areas."

Singla is experimenting with mouse embryonic stem cells to see if they can rejuvenate damaged heart tissue in the animals. In the future, he hopes to work with human embryonic cells and therapies for heart disease, which has been an early focus of stem-cell efforts.

Other advocates for stem-cell research are not so sure that embryonic cells deserve all the attention they're getting.

Daniel Faiella has taken his autistic 8-year-old son to Costa Rica three times for infusions of stem cells culled from either bone marrow or umbilical cord blood. These are referred to as "adult" stem cells. Faiella thinks the therapy has helped his son tremendously. He said Matthew is learning how to read, spell and interact with others.

A vast amount of research using these adult stem cells is ongoing, and Faiella hopes it does not get pushed to the side. Some studies have linked the use of embryonic stem cells to the development of tumors.

"Even if you look past the ethical issues, there are a lot of safety and scientific problems with embryonic stem cells," said Faiella, who lives in Central Florida.

Scientists at the La Jolla campus of the Burnham Institute for Medical Research have been working with embryonic stem cells as part of a California state initiative to fund the work. As Burnham builds its new campus in Orlando, scientific director Daniel Kelly does not expect researchers locally to work with the cells.

But his team of scientists will collaborate with their colleagues in California.

"I think there is power in using a variety of different approaches and strategies," Kelly said. "The understanding that we gain from using stem cells could be an important component in attacking a number of dreaded diseases."